You know what I love? How I Met Your Mother. I love the storylines, the humor, and the relentless mocking of everything. But mainly – I love Barney Stinson. I love his playbooks, suits, rules, and how he high-fives everyone. All of this to say, that it should go without saying that I love Epcot’s Candlelight Processional. What does the retelling of The Christmas Story with narrators and mass choir and a slightly inappropriate television comedy have in common, you might ask? NEIL PATRICK HARRIS – the man who played Barney, and also one of the celebrity narrators at the processional every year.
The Candlelight Processional is the centerpiece of the Christmas celebration at Epcot each year. There are different narrators for different times of the Holiday season – this year’s narrators are as follows:
11/25 – 11/27: Steven Curtis Chapman
11/28 – 12/01: Neil Patrick Harris (HIGH FIVES FO EVERYONE)
12/02 – 12/03: Whoopi Goldberg
12/04 – 12/6: Edward James Olmos
12/10 – 12/12 Robby Benson
12/13 – 12/15: Meredith Vieira
12/16 – 12/18: Jim Caviezel
12/19 – 12/21: Joe Morton
12/22 – 12/24: Ming Na Wen
12/25 – 12/27 Jodi Benson
12/28 – 12/30: Cal Ripken, Jr.
We are huge fans of The Candlelight Processional. For starters, David and I are Christians, so it’s a deeply moving presentation for us to hear the Christmas Story told, while accompanied with an orchestra (50 piece guys!!) and choir.
How To See It:
You can camp out in line forever, and MAYBE get a seat, and waste valuable park time standing in line – OR you can book a dining package. Clearly, from our very biased way of explaining your options, we recommend booking a dining package, so that you can have a great meal, and a reserved seat at the processional. Last year, we booked a dining package at Biergarten, (read about that here!)which as a fun, Christmas atmosphere, before heading to see Neil Patrick Harris. Then I high-fived everyone in sight, and explained the hot-crazy theory to a few people.
If you don’t book a dining package, and you have limited vacation time – you can also hang back in the American Pavilion, and ‘listen’ to the show, without actually having a seat in the theater.
No matter how you enjoy it, we know you’ll love the Candlelight Processional. It’s one of our favorite Christmas traditions, and we know it will be something your family treasures as well (at the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card).
